Snowflower, my newest Priest has suddenly found her raison d’etre, no longer does she languish abandoned part way through a quest chain.

Instead she burns with purpose, driven by a need to leave behind the world she knows and explore what lies beyond the mist.

I’m not a huge fan of instanced start zones. My Death knights tend to get stuck early on because despite my love of being bad, I hate feeling trapped for so many levels and to be honest, stealing horses and slaughtering “innocents” who by their very nature can’t make lv 1s and call you names soon grows old. If only all NPCs were like a certain Miss Ellia Ravenmane. Gilneas was fun the first time around although the Goblin start zone had me feeling like I was playing the wrong game but the Pandaren start has some how managed to engage with me on a personal level. I won’t go into details as to why now because that’s a post and a half in it’s own right but somehow whilst wandering along, the atmosphere has managed to breathe life into character I was leveling for turtle mounts. She’s become a living breathing opinionated entity in her own right.

There is no one factor which has helped create this shift in her character, meeting the Great Turtle helped and of course the sheer beauty of the landscape played it’s part.

Ultimately though, the Forest of Staves was perhaps the biggest influence on her fledgling personality. Snowflower’s staff will never grow along side her ancestors but where-ever she ends up, she’ll carry their memories forever.